1. Introduction

Much can happen in a week, and it did last week with respect to the Government seeking to streamline the Planning Act 2008 regime for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects and send out the clear message that Britain is open for infrastructure investment and the place where global investors should be investing.

Some of the key things that happened are:

• Amendments were proposed to the Planning & Infrastructure Bill, to remove the statutory consultation requirement from the Planning Act 2008 – the written statement by Matthew Pennycook MP explaining this is available here.
• Hot off the back of the draft Infrastructure Planning (Onshore Wind and Solar Generation) Order 2025 receiving the backing of the House of Commons on 2 April 2025, the Government has (with little fanfare) published updates to National Policy Statements EN-1 (overarching NPS for Energy), EN-3 (for renewable energy infrastructure); and EN-5 (electricity networks infrastructure) for consultation; and
• Perhaps seeking to capitalise on those updates, various government departments published an open letter to clean energy developers and investors to “Build it in Britain”.

Within this briefing we analyse those updates, including the potential impacts of them for the delivery of critical national infrastructure in Britain.

2. Planning & Infrastructure Bill – Removal of NSIP Statutory Consultation Requirements

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill, whilst containing some helpful updates to the Planning Act 2008 (the “2008 Act”), was very arguably underwhelming and did not contain the amendments that would be anticipated to be required to see a significant shift in the DCO process and reductions in the timescales for the obtainment of consents needed to drive investment in clean energy and other infrastructure.

The pre-application stage of the DCO process requires vast resources and is incredibly time consuming. The statutory consultation requirements have placed a significant burden upon project promoters to engage with a significant range of stakeholders to a very thorough degree, and over time as projects have sought to meet those requirements and address perceived risks of inadequate consultation the process has become more laborious and lacks the necessary proportionality to function as is needed. That need being to strike the right balance between having consulted persons affected by proposals, and for those proposals to come forward at pace to deliver on Clean Power 2030, Net Zero and to support the delivery of housing and economic development.

The removal of the statutory consultation requirements, including the need for the submission of and consultation on Preliminary Environmental Information, is therefore a significant and much welcome change. The Government has identified in its press releases that this change will shave one year off the consenting timelines for a typical NSIP project, and that does feel like a realistic statement.

This will not mean that applicants can avoid pre-application consultation or that a lower quality of application will be accepted on submission. Statutory guidance will be published which will detail “what the Secretary of State considers to be best practice in terms of the steps they might take in relation to a proposed application in readiness for submitting an actual application” and both applicants and the Planning Inspectorate will need to have regard to this. In practice, this change will move the Planning Act 2008 regime on to a more even footing with the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 when it comes to pre-application.

This is a significant step forward for projects which are defined as NSIPs in the 2008 Act, which soon will include onshore wind projects (more on that later), and it will also be a significant change for any project which is weighing up the options of pursuing either a DCO application or a town and country planning application.

Up until now the pre-application process has often been seen as a significant negative consideration for projects which are considering to opt in to the DCO regime, or which are considering their scale (e.g. generating capacity) to decide whether to be within or outside of the regime. But with a much more proportionate and streamlined approach to pre-application consultation, that will change.

Accordingly, as well as speeding up the process for many NSIP’s, we may also see an increase in the number of projects which seek to opt-in to the DCO regime to take advantage of its one-stop shop approach to consenting, and the greater certainty it provides in respect of timescales for decisions to be taken.

3. Energy National Policy Statement Updates

In July 2024 the Chancellor announced a review of the existing energy NPSs to ensure they reflect current energy policy and enable a planning policy framework which can deliver investment in the infrastructure needed to achieve Clean Power by 2030 and Net Zero by 2050.

Since that announcement, the government has published the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, setting out how the government intends to expand low-carbon energy infrastructure to achieve energy security and at least 95% of generation in Great Britain being produced by clean sources by 2030.

The Government has also laid before parliament the Planning (Onshore Wind and Solar Generation) Order 2025 which will introduce onshore wind into the NSIP regime and raise the threshold for solar projects to be NSIPs to 100MW, with effect from 31 December 2025.

Updates are needed to the suite of NPS’s to reflect these and other changes, so as to ensure the necessary policy framework and support is contained within the NPSs. Those updates were published in draft for consultation on 24th April. The deadline for responses is 29th May.

The updates address a range of issues, including:

• Clean power 2030 and changes to policy in respect of Critical National Priority Infrastructure policy (removing Energy from Waste projects from the benefit of this policy);
• changes in relation to Offshore Wind, focused on minimising wake effects on other occupiers; and
• updates in relation to electricity networks infrastructure policy, including to endorse the electricity transmission recommendations set out in the Centralised Strategic Network Plan to accelerate consenting times and support the upgrade of the electricity grid.

But perhaps of most interest will be the updates that are made to EN-3 which provide the policy framework in respect of onshore wind projects, including in relation to need, design, impact assessment and mitigations and decision taking.

Front and centre of the updates is the confirmation that “[t]he Clean Power Action Plan estimates the need for 27-29GW of operational onshore wind capacity by 2030” – which is a very significant amount.

Also notable is some of the decision taking policy on key issues, which on first reading appears that it will be very helpful for applicants seeking to deliver the first onshore wind projects in England for a generation. This includes:

• with regard to landscape and visual impacts:
  • “It is unlikely that either the number or scale of wind turbines can be changed without significantly affecting the electricity generating output of the wind farm. Therefore, mitigation in the form of reduction in scale may not be feasible”; and
  • “modern onshore wind turbines used in commercial wind farms are large, moving structures, and such impacts are to be expected from their construction and operation … Where impacts are localised and/or appropriate design mitigation has been applied, the Secretary of State should consider these as acceptable.”
• with regard to impacts on the historic environment, where it may be found that some impacts will be unavoidable given the inherent visibility of onshore wind proposals, clear guidance that:
  • “Onshore wind farms are generally consented on the basis that they will be time-limited in operation. The Secretary of State should therefore consider the length of time for which consent is sought when considering the impacts of any effect on the historic environment, such as effects on the significance of designated heritage assets.”

Importantly for projects currently progressing which may benefit from the updates, the consultation confirms that whilst the updated NPSs will only have effect in relation to those applications for development consent accepted for examination after the publication of the final amended versions, any emerging draft energy NPSs (or those amended but not having effect) are potentially capable of being important and relevant considerations in the decision-making process.

That will be the case for applications seeking planning permission via the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 regime where the NPSs can be a relevant material consideration for decision making, as well as future NSIP projects.

4. Build it in Britain: an open letter to clean energy developers and investors

So, following a week of legislative and policy updates, an open letter was published by DESNZ, DBT, HM Treasury and Great British Energy inviting the private sector to invest in clean energy in the UK, seeking to re-emphasise the attractiveness of Britain as a sound place in which to invest and deliver infrastructure projects.

Some of its headline messages are that:

• Clean Energy Industries are a key focus of the UK’s modern Industrial Strategy, which will capitalise on the opportunities of clean energy and net zero, and turbocharge growth in the UK’s key sectors;
• Key steps are being taken to break down the barriers to growth and investment and to make the UK one of the top global destinations for clean energy investment, which most recently include:
  • fast tracking an initial £300 million public investment in domestic offshore wind supply chains through Great British Energy, supporting the domestic manufacture of critical and innovative components;
  • Ofgem recently approving ambitious pro-growth reforms to the electricity grid connections process to ensure that clean energy projects will get plugged in to the grid as a matter of urgency; and
  • that later in the Spring, the Government will publish a Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan as part of the Industrial Strategy, to set out how it is breaking down barriers to growth, creating thousands of high-quality jobs across the country and cementing our position as a world-leading exporter of low-carbon products, services and innovation. This Strategy will emphasise the importance of clean energy supply chains in the UK and how critical it is to secure investment into these industries.

Much is needed to stimulate the UK economy and the delivery of infrastructure is needed to support the delivery of new homes and the growth of businesses and industry. Whilst an early indicator, the open letter demonstrates the government’s joined up thinking on the 2030 target for Clean Power and the pro-active steps it is taking to encourage the delivery of energy projects and to ensure a higher level of confidence in the certainty of investment decisions within a new economic and policy framework.

5. Concluding Remarks

Alongside reforms to the planning system so that it works to deliver at pace the consents which are needed to achieve the Clean Power 2030 and Net Zero missions in a more certain policy environment, confidence in the business environment and clarity on the supply chain capacity to deliver projects in a disruptive global market will be critical.

The most recent updates summarised in this briefing are promising and demonstrate how the government is focusing on delivering the conditions for investment to come forward, including through reforms and updates to infrastructure planning consenting.

If you have a project which may be impacted by the proposed updates and would like more information on those, please do not hesitate to get in touch.